When marketing professional and 15-year youth soccer coach Wade Huntsman was looking for a new business, he was immediately drawn to Lice Clinics of America. “’I’ve always loved kids and getting to help them is by far the coolest part of my new clinic,” he said.

Even so, he was in for some surprises when he went into the lice treatment business in Tulsa. “It has been amazing to me since I started this business how many friends have whispered to me, ‘I wish you had been around a year ago, our whole family had lice and it was terrible,’” Wade said. “It seems like everyone has the same secret.”

He knows the need is great. “I have heard of a number of schools in South Tulsa that have had outbreaks,” Wade says. “I have heard a lot of complaints about over-the-counter products failing to work and the hours and hours of combing required. I am excited to be able to offer a solution that is 99.2 percent effective and is completed in one 90-minute treatment.”

Wade is referring to lice treatment using the AirAllé medical device, available exclusively at Lice Clinics of America treatment centers. The AirAllé is an FDA-cleared medical device that has been clinically proven to kill live lice and 99.2 percent of eggs in a single treatment. It uses carefully controlled and applied warm air to dehydrate lice, with no harmful chemicals and no painstaking nitpicking required.

Over-the-counter lice products use pesticides called pyrethroids to attack the central nervous systems of head lice. Studies have shown that most head lice in the United States and North America are now resistant to pyrethroid-based treatment. Many health experts and parents have expressed concern about using pesticide-based products on children and about the even harsher prescription medications that are often used when over-the-counter products don’t work.

“It is great to be able to treat lice with modern medical devices that are not only faster and nearly 100 percent effective, but also completely pesticide-free,” Wade said. “You just should not be rubbing pesticides into your child’s scalp.”

With 250 clinics in 20 countries, Lice Clinics of America is the largest and fastest growing lice treatment network in the world. The growth can be attributed in large part to the breakthrough nature of the AirAllé device. Previously, lice were treated with pesticide-based products and required weeks of checking and nitpicking to make sure every louse and egg were removed.

Families tend to keep their head lice experiences secret, as Wade found, which often compounds the stress because people feel they have to go it alone. Lice Clinics of America provides a professional clinic setting with certified operators of the AirAllé device, and guaranteed treatment that gives parents and children alike peace of mind that they will leave the clinic lice-free.

“Kids and parents don’t have to suffer through discomfort, stress, long and uncomfortable combing, and multiple re-treatments any more,” Wade said. “There is a fast, safe, effective solution that can make the whole problem go away in 90 minutes or less.”